Functional responses of an invasive fish under elevated temperatures

Session: Poster Session

Heather Reid, McGill University, [email protected]
Anthony Ricciardi, McGill University, [email protected]

Abstract

Invasions by non-native species have had profound impacts on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin. Our research aims to develop a predictive understanding of these impacts that could inform risk assessment and management plans. However, a major challenge to risk assessment is that current knowledge may be unreliable for predicting future impacts, owing to the influence of intensifying environmental stressors such as climate change. Our model species is the round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), the most invasive vertebrate in the Great Lakes basin, in which it competes with many native fishes and consumes invertebrates voraciously. Through a series of lab experiments, we will measure the functional response of round gobies collected from the St. Lawrence River and acclimated at both current (20°C) and projected future (26°C) mean summer temperatures. We predict that round gobies will have higher feeding rates at temperatures closer to their thermal optimum (~25°C). If elevated temperatures allow gobies to maintain or improve their performance so as to increase their per capita effects (e.g. maximum feeding rate), then the ecological impacts of the species will likely be greater than forecasted by current risk assessments.